LG Electronics to go online with a line-up of exclusives

LG, which will also give a thrust to selling smartphones on these digital marketplaces, plans to partner with Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm.Writankar Mukherjee | ET Bureau | May 19, 2017, 09:17 IST

The country’s largest white goods maker, LG Electronics, is going online with a line-up of television, refrigerator and washing machine models that it will sell exclusively on e-commerce portals.

The company, which will also give a thrust to selling smartphones on these digital marketplaces, plans to partner Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm under its online sales strategy.

The South Korean major also plans to integrate its 680-odd exclusive brand stores with the e-commerce marketplaces whereby products ordered online will be supplied to the consumer from a nearby offline store to ensure faster delivery and that there are no damages in transit, said LG Electronics India managing director Kim Ki-Wan. LG will roll out its online sales in India by end of this year, he said.

“There are lot of supply and delivery challenges for online orders with as much as 30% rejection rate for large appliances as return by the customer or damage in transit. The ecommerce marketplaces are struggling in this regard. We have long-term supply expertise and will use that for fulfilment of online sales. Our brand stores can play a big role on this and also offer the touch-and-feel experience,” said Ki-Wan.

LG, one of the last consumer electronics brands to enter online sales, had built a separate team for this last year. The company has since been studying the opportunities. While online accounts for around 30% of total smartphone sales and 8% for televisions, its contribution for home appliances is much low at 4-5%. LG’s ace rival, Samsung, has been one of the first companies to expand its presence online and has been offering online-exclusive models since last year.

“We don’t want to jeopardise our offline sales channel with the online strategy. We will have exclusive models for online sales, both in terms of design and features. This is both for televisions and appliances. There could be some benefits for consumers buying online, such as discount or additional warranty. However, the long-term strategy will be to offer convenience to the customers,” said Ki-Wan.